


Cold Comfort

by Mabis



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Complicated Relationships, Ed and Al are State Alchemists, Ed hates Roy, Everyone lives, Gen, Parental Roy Mustang, Wartime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:54:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23557915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mabis/pseuds/Mabis
Summary: When Ed and Al are called to the front lines, Roy does everything he can to protect them. Except things never go as planned in a war, and bombs aren't the only things exploding.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric & Roy Mustang, Edward Elric & Roy Mustang
Kudos: 47





	Cold Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read as either 2003 anime or manga canon.

Colonel Roy Mustang was extremely tempted to blow up the entire military headquarters. He’d simply make sure a few certain people were out of the area, then with a snap of his fingers, the whole damn place would be reduced to nothing more than a heap of burning rubble. 

It didn’t even have to be the entire headquarters. The conference room would be enough, just as long as every single son of a bitch that agreed with the orders were inside, so he could burn them all to hell in one shot.

Roy was still engrossed in his thoughts as he entered his office, not noticing the questioning looks of his subordinates as he walked to his desk.

How could they? He thought he had gotten rid of all this shit when he killed off Bradley. This wasn’t supposed to happen anymore, and there was no way on this earth it was supposed to happen to them.

“FUCK!” Then with one single motion, Roy grabbed the lamp from his desk and threw it as hard as he could against the wall, breaking it in half.

He stood hunched over his desk for a moment, trying to calm himself down. Finally he looked up, and saw everyone in the room staring at him in shock.

Slowly he straightened himself, took a swallow and announced, “Despite my strong objection, the Elric brothers will be joining us on the battlefield.”

It was true that the Elric brothers were State Alchemists, and State Alchemists were still under the command of the military. Despite that, they hadn’t received much in the way of formal military training. When they were ordered to the front lines, Roy only had enough time to give them a crash course on how best to survive trench warfare before the three of them were sent to battle. Hell, this was the first time those two were in military uniform.

However, just because the Elric brothers were ordered to join the battle, it didn’t mean they had to do any actual fighting. Thus, Roy made sure Ed and Al were far away from the battlefield, tucked away in an underground bunker a considerable distance from the front lines, where no bullets could get them. Of course, that didn’t mean they liked it.

“Come on, Colonel!” Ed whined as soon as he got in the bunker. “You know I’ve taken on soldiers before and walked away just fine!”

Roy mentally sighed. He couldn’t say he wasn’t expecting this, since Ed was about as stubborn and brash as they got.

“This is nothing like running away from a handful of soldiers, Fullmetal. Guns and bombs are constantly going off, and the probability of you getting injured, or worse, is extremely high. The last thing I need is Command giving me grief for losing a State Alchemist. Therefore, I order the both of you to stay inside this bunker until further notice. Is that clear?” 

Ed’s only reply was a snarl before finally plopping down on a nearby crate next to Al, who was trying his best to not look afraid but failing miserably.

“Come on, Ed, the Colonel is just trying to keep us safe.”

Ed turned to his brother, and saw how much this was affecting him. “Fine, I’ll stay here,” he replied, which resulted in Al giving him a small smile.

Satisfied that they would stay put at least for the time being, Roy turned to Fury, who was standing behind him. “If either one of them tries to leave this bunker, feel free to knock them unconscious and tie them up. I need to get back to the front.”

Fury looked shocked by the order, but merely nodded and saluted in reply.

Roy had no intention of letting anyone find out just how uneasy he was about having the Elric brothers so close to so much danger. In truth, he was scared, almost terrified of the situation. Bad luck seemed to follow those two relentlessly, and Roy had a constant, nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach that something horrible was about to happen.

“You should know by now that those brothers can handle just about anything.”

Roy looked up from his maps and saw Hawkeye standing just inside the bunker. She was always able to see through his mask, no matter how well he hid behind it.

“You cannot afford to worry about them when you have so many other responsibilities,” she continued. “They are not the only ones on the battlefield.”

He remained silent. She was right, obviously, but his emotions always had a hard time listening to reason.

“Why is it those two can never escape tragedy?” Roy finally said. He then got up from his makeshift desk and followed Hawkeye out of the bunker.

He was outside for no more than five minutes when he heard a shell go off, in the direction of Ed and Al’s bunker. “Please let it not be them,” he whispered to himself. His gut wrenched as his mind started estimating the distance of the explosion, and too soon he realized that it was the absolute wrong distance.

The shell had hit the bunker.

Hawkeye probably tried to stop him from running towards the explosion, but he wasn’t paying attention to the outside world. His only thought was that Ed and Al simply could not be dead.

When he got there, Fury was already trying to sit up, despite having a bleeding arm. That had to be a good sign.

Roy felt another glimmer of relief as he took in the damage. It was not a direct hit, as the crater was several yards away. However, it was close enough to partially collapse the bunker.

He rushed into the bunker and saw Ed lying on the ground, covered in dust and coughing. So far one brother was alive, now where was Al?

“Help me!”

He turned to the familiar voice and saw Al, his leg pinned to the ground by a large wooden beam.

“My leg hurts,” he cried as Roy bent down next to him. He could see blood starting to color Al’s pant leg where the beam had fallen on it, and he could feel his own face going pale.

“Colonel!”

Roy heard Hawkeye’s voice in the background, but he didn’t pay it any attention. The only thing he could think about was that these boys needed help immediately. “I need a medic in here NOW!”

Suddenly Ed was beside him, screaming his brother’s name, terror plastered all over his face. 

Roy felt an overwhelming sense of relief once the medics finally came. With some group lifting they got Al’s leg free and put him on a stretcher, and somehow they even managed to calm Ed down enough to get him away from Al and on his own stretcher.

As they were being carried away, Roy felt someone grab his arm.

“You’ve done all you can,” Hawkeye said. “Let the doctors take care of them while you finish what you need to do.”

Roy frowned. “I want their status as soon as it becomes available,” he said, and then left the bunker for the front.

Well, the good news was that Ed and Al weren’t dead. From the looks of it, Ed escaped with just a few cuts and bruises. Al, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. Roy guessed his leg was broken or more likely crushed, perhaps even a compound fracture. It was a serious injury that needed extensive medical treatment, but Al would live, and that was the part that really mattered.

However, that certainly didn’t mean Roy was going to forget about the whole incident, far from it, in fact. That uneasy feeling in his stomach had turned into knots, almost making him nauseated.

A few hours later he received word about Ed and Al’s condition. As expected, Ed’s injuries were minor. He had a small cut on his head and some bruising on his arms, but otherwise unscathed. Al had a compound fracture on his right leg, which required surgery, plus several months of recovery and rehabilitation. Even then Al was probably going to have a limp the rest of his life. Of course, if Al’s leg got badly infected, then amputation would be the only option, and death would become a very real possibility.

Roy went to the medical tent as soon as he could the next morning. The fighting had died down during the night, thus enabling him to leave the front.

“How are the Elric brothers?” he asked the doctor on duty.

“The older one is fine, he can be released right now if you want. As for the younger one, the surgery to repair his compound fracture was a success. Luckily there hasn’t been any infection yet, but we still need to be careful. That leg could still get infected at any time.”

“Where are they now?”

“Both of them are in the recovery section,” the doctor replied, indicating the next room. “The older one is sitting by the younger one.”

“I do not want either of them released. They both will stay here until further notice.”

“Are you serious? We don’t have enough room for a healthy kid to stay here,” the doctor protested. “Besides, that other one should go to a regular hospital.”

Roy gave him a firm look. “Perhaps you did not fully understand me. I order you to keep those two here until I say otherwise. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir,” the doctor replied, then shook his head as he left.

Roy quietly slipped into the recovery room, and saw Ed sitting on a chair next to Al’s bed, watching his brother sleep. Al looked as fine as he could under the circumstances. He was fast asleep in the military cot, with his leg slightly raised. 

By contrast, Ed looked like a complete mess. His uniform was dirty and wrinkled, and there were some bloodstains on his arms and chest. That had to be Al’s blood. As for Ed himself, the boy looked like he hadn’t slept in a week. His hair was disheveled, and his face hadn’t even been washed. What caught Roy’s attention the most, however, were the fresh tearstains on Ed’s cheeks.

“How despicable,” Roy whispered to himself. He thought he had gotten rid of all the monsters in the military, but obviously there were some left. After all, only a monster could send children off to battle.

“You bastard!”

Before Roy could react, Ed had knocked him to the floor and was now sitting on him, face full of rage and fear.

“You bastard!” Ed yelled as he grabbed Roy’s collar. “You brought him out here! He broke his leg because of you! I hate you! I HATE you!”

As Ed was screaming, Roy saw the tears start flowing once again, off Ed’s cheeks and dropping down to his own face.

“I hate you! I hate…you! I hate…” Ed was obviously about to break into sobs, but he quickly got up and ran out the door before Roy could say or do anything about it.

On one hand, Roy had no idea what to do. Ed was overwhelmed with fear and anger, and Roy figured the boy wouldn’t appreciate his efforts to help ease the pain. Perhaps the best thing to do was to just leave him alone for now.

But Roy couldn’t do that, not this time. Not when it really was his fault for not keeping them safe. He should’ve put them farther away from the front lines. He should’ve known something like this would happen.

Thus, he got up, dusted off his uniform as he took a deep breath, and followed Ed out the door.

Ed hadn’t run very far. Roy immediately spotted him sitting on the ground, half hidden by a burnt out tree stump. He quietly walked over, stopping a few feet from the stump.

Roy only heard sniffles, which probably meant Ed was done with the heavy crying. However, that didn’t mean the tears were completely gone, as he saw Ed wipe his face with his sleeves.

Frowning, he made his way over to Ed until he was standing right behind him. “I’m sorry,” he said softly, putting his hand on Ed’s shoulder.

“How could you say you’re sorry,” Ed replied. He turned towards him, and Roy saw that the tears had momentarily stopped. “This is all your fault. You’re the one who put Al in that bunker.”

Roy took his hand off Ed and mentally sighed. Why couldn’t this kid see that he wasn’t the enemy for once? “Yes, it is my fault, Fullmetal, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be sorry for it. As hard as it may be for you to believe it, I don’t like seeing my subordinates laying in the hospital severely wounded.”

He paused for a moment. Oh why the hell not. “Not only that, but the absolute last thing on this earth I want to see is either you or Al being the one on that hospital bed. Can’t you see that I was trying to prevent all this as much as I could?!”

Ed lowered his head and was quiet for a moment. “They said he was going to be okay,” he finally said. “He is going to be okay, right?”

“As long as there is no infection, he should be fine.”

There was another pause before Ed spoke again. “I should’ve been there to make sure that beam didn’t fall on him. I should’ve been right next to him the whole time.” 

Ed started sniffling again, and Roy realized just how much Ed looked like the child he still was. A scared child with no one to turn to. That boy needed to be comforted and reassured, be given a hug more than anything else, and Roy cursed himself that he could not be the one to give him what he needed. Besides, Ed probably wouldn’t appreciate it anyway.

Thus, the only thing Roy could do was speak to him. “Accidents happen, and there’s no use blaming people for them. Al was merely at the wrong place at the wrong time. This had nothing to do with you. The only thing you can do now is be there for him when he wakes up.”

Ed looked up, and Roy noted that the all too familiar look of determination was slowly creeping back onto the boy’s face. At least his words did something. Ed slowly got up, and the two of them walked back to the recovery room.

Early the next morning, the hospital train arrived to pick up those needing further medical attention.

“I have made sure you and Al are not separated,” Roy said to Ed as the wounded were being loaded onto the train. “If there is any trouble, just show them this letter.” He handed him a letter he composed the night before, which contained his explicit order that the brothers were not to be separated under any condition.

“Thanks,” Ed replied weakly as he took the letter.

“The hospital you two are going to isn’t that far from here. I will come and make sure everything is all right as soon as I can.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Ed said, frowning slightly. “We’ll be just fine by ourselves.” 

“I always check on my subordinates when they land in the hospital, Fullmetal, and I will not make an exception for you.”

Ed frowned harder, then turned his attention back his brother. Al was lying on a stretcher waiting to be carried onto the train, awake but still looking exhausted.

“My leg hurts,” Al whined once Ed was with him. Ed said something in reply, but Roy couldn’t quite hear it over the commotion. A few minutes later Al was carried onto the train, with Ed walking right next to the stretcher, holding his brother’s hand.

As the train left, Roy let out a very large sigh. Those two were finally out of harm’s way. Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t stop worrying about them. He didn’t think he could ever stop worrying about them, really, and that was fine with him.


End file.
